Wednesday, February 13, 2013

When Advocacy Becomes Real

So today, I had a humbling experience that made all of this
“advocacy stuff” much more real.

Walking down the streets in Seattle, you see homeless
people. It’s a sad reality, one that i can’t truly come to terms with. It’s
terrible not to know someone’s story, but to know that right now, when you’re
seeing them, somehow they’re on the streets. How did they get there? What
happened in the journey of this person’s life has lead them into this big city
with nothing but a ragged sleeping bag? After all, what separates them from
myself is absolutely nothing through the eyes of God, and through the humanity
that exists and unites all of us.

See, at my internship lately, i’ve been calling LOTS of
legislators to advocate for those less fortunate, to empower the voice of those
who aren’t heard. To get more revenue into our broken system that isn’t
providing health and human services to those who really need it. Somehow
though, those calls don’t impact me the way seeing someone struggling on the
streets really does, even if it may be a step in the right direction. Sometimes
it feels like a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of sitting at a desk trying to unite
people through a database throughout our state, but when the things you’re
advocating for look you in the eye, things take on a different shape.

Earlier tonight, right after President Obama’s State of the
Union address, a young couple buzzed the caretaker button, and arose me from
the couch to ask for a safe place to stay and some food. They said someone had
told them to come to the church, and that it’s a place that would welcome them.
I had to break the news to them that our church doesn’t offer those services,
and advised them to call 2-1-1 for human service. They told me that had done
that, and no one responded. Now, I don’t know these people, but i know that the
only thing that really makes us different is that they are outside in the cold,
and i’m inside a cramped apartment in a church. But i’m INSIDE! I have this
place to stay, somewhere warm to go, and even though I have to live with three
others in this tiny place, it’s a place where i’m welcome. It’s a place i can
sleep at night, and eat, and live. It tears me apart that somehow this guy and
his girlfriend didn’t have that. I sent him away with a couple ham and cheese
sandwiches and some almonds, what little I could spare.

What really hit me about this though is how angry it made me
feel. How on Earth could this happen? It’s infuriating to me. Another thing
that hit me about this was the surreal timing. I just finished watching Obama
deliver a speech that stated minimum wage should be raised to 9.00 dollars, but
this is an issue that should go beyond party lines. These are HUMANS! It could
be our brothers and sisters, and they have no place to stay.

“Every man is fighting his own battle”. Plato knew what he
was talking about when he said that, and I think what he meant by this was that
there is no way we can know what happened to that couple on the street, but
what we do have is empathy. What if that were us? Or worse, what if that was someone
in our family? Could he have been lazy? Maybe. But Maybe, just MAYBE, they came
about a rough patch in life, as we all do, and now here are these two people
swallowing their pride and asking me for help. That alone must unite us. We’re
all in this boat together, and I know it’s idealistic, dreamy, and out there to
think we can just solve a problem as catastrophic and huge as homelessness, and
it won’t happen overnight, but i believe in that alternate vision, and my faith
is becoming more and more apart of that, trying to make that a reality. This
Seattle experience can be terribly challenging sometimes, but living in big
city has taken away some of my rose-tinted glasses to come closer to seeing
things as they really are. This is life. Whew.